


the one where Emma doesn't know Regina doesn't know

by Olor



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: ASL, Best Friends, Bisexual Female Character, Dogs, Drinking & Talking, F/F, LGBTQ Female Character, Lesbian Character, Pet Names, Prompt Fic, Sign Language, SwanQueen Fanfiction Facebook Group (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-01-23 03:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21313723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olor/pseuds/Olor
Summary: hey! this is my first time posting something that I've wrote so I'm a little nervous. this was based off of a prompt from the swan queen fan fiction group on facebook and I decided to give it a shot. all mistakes are my own, I hope you enjoy!
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 99





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> hey! this is my first time posting something that I've wrote so I'm a little nervous. this was based off of a prompt from the swan queen fan fiction group on facebook and I decided to give it a shot. all mistakes are my own, I hope you enjoy!

June 28th 2019

Emma’s bedroom

“Come on, Em! It’s going to be really fun!” Ruby insisted, only to be joined by belle, sitting on the chair by her desk, 

“You haven’t been to the last couple parties.. You just sit at home and mope all alone,”

“I am not moping all alone! I have Lola!” the blonde argued back, gesturing to the fluffy, four legged dog beside her on the bed.

“Em, it’s been a year since you and Lily broke up,” belle told her (the already known information) with a gentle smile, “maybe it’s time to get back out there. Maybe your future wife will be at the party, you never know.”

“Belle is right, you know,” ruby added on, “there are all kinds of chicks at these parties.. So lets get you into that pink dresss we BOTH know you look hot as fuck in and get you to that party!”

The room was silent for a minute once ruby finished speaking her ‘inspiring’ speech, before emma rolled her eyes and let out a little “what the hell”

Within the next hour, the two brunettes had emma dressed to perfection in a skinny, tight, sleeveless dress with tiny straps (that emma compared to the width of her pinky finger) princess waves curled to a perfection, small black heels (because emma insisted her being 5’10 was tall enough), and light makeup done by Ruby, who was studying cosmetology. 

“Tell us you look hot,” Ruby told her friend, shoving her in front of the mirror. 

Emma let out a sigh looking at her reflection in the mirror “I.. look hot,” she said to the brunettes standing behind her, who are now letting out cheers, 

“Okay, let’s get to the party!!”

~

The three girls walked into the party. Emma immediately noticed how loud it was and how it deeply smelled of booze, sweat and mixed cologne and perfume. 

“Come on! Let's go get a drink or two and look out possible.. candidates for emma!” Ruby shouted over the music to her friend group before dragging them to the kitchen. The three of them got drinks, ruby had a cherry drink that reeked of tequila, belle mixed some champagne and orange juice while emma settled for a long island iced tea. The trio then made their way out into the living room where they stayed close to the kitchen door and looked around while they made small talk. 

A couple minutes later a blonde and a brunette walked in the door, emma noticed quite quickly. Her eyes followed the blonde when she walked into the kitchen before her eyes fell back towards the brunette standing alone by the door slightly awkward. 

Emma smiled to herself softly before tuning to her friends. “I’ll be back in a minute.. Watch my drink,” she told her friends before pushing her drink into ruby’s hand. She looked back at the brunette once more before she made her way over.

“Hi, I’m Emma,” she introduced herself, and the brunettes head shot up to meet the face.  
“I-I’m Regina,” the brunette smiled softly. Regina was gorgeous. She had a fair complexion and light freckles laid across the bridge of her nose and they spread out across her cheeks. She had big brown eyes and long black lashes, Emma could tell they weren’t fake. Her lips were painted a darker shade of red, but other than that Emma could see no obvious signs of makeup. 

Emma smiled at Regina, “how are you?”

She easily struck up a conversation with the brunette, learning that she is majoring in law, she is twenty two and working as an intern for her mother's company. 

Emma exchanges the facts that she is twenty four, she works as a website designer, and she graduated last year with a bachelor's degree in computer science. 

Over with Ruby and Belle, the two girls were squealing to themselves about their best friend finally talking to another person that wasn’t her parents or her best friends, (them, duh) 

When the blonde that came in with Regina came out of the kitchen with two drinks, she saw Regina laughing at the blonde who was with the group of brunettes when she arrived. She walked over to Ruby and Belle and smiled. 

“Hey! Im Kathryn, and it appears my best friend has replaced me with yours, so.. mind if I hang here for a bit?”

~

Regina and Emma ended up speaking all night long, when their drinks were emptied they took turns getting each other a new one while the other one waited (and blushed deeply in Regina’s case) and then a whole new topic would arise. Emma told Regina that she was adopted at 16 and her parents lived about an hour away, while Regina told Emma her father died when she was younger and she was mostly raised by her mother who lived just meer minutes from her apartment. It was nearing midnight when Kathryn said goodbye to Ruby and Belle, after exchanging numbers, and went to fetch her best friend she seemed to lose after a minute of entering. 

“Oh! Kathryn!” the brunette exclaimed as she saw her best friend approach the pair. 

“Kathryn, this is Emma, Emma, this is Kathryn. Kathryn is studying to become a doctor!” Regina, slightly tipsy, told Emma who giggled and shook Kathryn’s hand.

“Gina, we must get going.. If you are going to make it to Zelena’s before she falls asleep,” Kathryn informed her. 

Zelena??? Who is Zelena??? 

“Oh! Right. Yes, we must get going,” the flustered woman stated and set down the red solo cup. “I’ve had a great evening, Emma. would you mind giving me your number so we can talk some more?”

Emma quickly nodded and gave out her number as Regina typed it into her phone. Regina read it back to her once to make sure it was correct, before the two said their goodbyes and Regina left. 

Emma downed the rest of what was in her own plastic cup before she joined her friends once more. “Alright.. I'm ready to go.”

~

“God, she's amazing,” Emma told Belle as she was being tucked in my both brunettes. 

“She's studying law. Like. to be a lawyer! Shes wicked smart.”

Belle nodded along and kissed Emma’s forehead, “you get some sleep, alright?”

Tired Emma let out a yawn mid nod and Belle chuckled, closing off the lights, “sleep well, little swan.”

~

In the morning, Emma woke up with a killer headache. She quickly found the aspirin and water that Belle must have left the night previous and she was so grateful for her best friend. She quickly took the aspirin and gulped down the glass of water before getting changed into a long sleeve shirt and some running shorts.

She put her hair up before grabbing the glass and leaving her room to find Belle in the kitchen, making pancakes. ‘Emma refilled the glass with water and looked to belle. 

“Thank you, for last night, I owe you.” she told her best friend and received a side hug in response before a plate of pancakes was put in front of her. 

“Eat up, and then find your phone and text that girl. I can tell, she's a keeper. Don’t wait too long to text.”

Emma ate pancakes Belle served her and started a nice conversation about Regina from the night before. Eventually Belle had to leave for her class, so Emma was left alone. She found her phone which had three new messages, two from Ruby, skip, and one from an unknown number. She clicked on the later. 

‘Hey, Emma. It’s Regina from the party. I had a great time with you, I’d love to catch up sometime. -R’

Emma quickly added the number to her contacts under “regina” with a red heart emoji before responding: 

‘Hello, Regina, it’s Emma. I had a really fun night with you too. This may be a little forward, but are you available for lunch sometime this week?’ 

Emma must have looked over the text a bajillion times before she was satisfied with what she wrote before clicking send. Emma then went back to her bedroom and turned on her computer to start finishing her newest project. Before she got a chance to load up the project, her phone dinged. 

‘It’s great to know that I got the right number! Unfortunately I work 6/7 days of the week and only get a 45 minute lunch break :( -R’

Emma quickly type out a response. ‘That’s not a big issue, my hours are pretty flexible, I could come to you and bring food?’

The next text came not even a minute later: ‘that would be great, actually! Say wednesday at 11:30? -R’

‘Perfect. I’ll see you then, Regina.’

‘Likewise -R’

By now, Emma was smiling like she was just told she won some kind of big prize. Which in a way, she kind of had. She had a date with Regina! ‘Oh shit. What kind of food does she like?? Allergies?? Oh god, what if I bring the only food she is allergic to!’

Emma quickly picked her phone back up and typed out another message. 

‘One more quick thing, any allergies i should be made aware of?’

‘Peanuts is the only thing, other than pollen but I doubt you’d be serving me flowers for lunch. -R😄’

“Holy crap she sent me a smiley face!” Emma squealed out loud, suddenly thankful Belle was not home to hear her fangirl over an emoji. After taking a minute to gather herself and her thoughts together, she typed out her final text. 

‘You got it. Have a good day, Regina.❤️’


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Regina have their first date!

July 6th 2019  Six days later, Emma took the day off to prepare her lunch with Regina. Throughout those six days, Emma and Regina texted on and off throughout the day when they had a spare moment, getting to know her a bit better. 

This Thursday however, Emma woke up at 6:30 am (which was early for her, especially because she worked from home and had no commitments that day for another five hours,) and took a run. She took Lola with her, of course, and they ran to the park and back. It only took about half an hour, so by the time the two got back in desperate need for water, Belle was already awake and eating breakfast. 

Emma got a glass of water for herself after greeting her roommate and downed it before filling up Lola’s water bowl. Lola quickly reacted by spinning in a circle in gratitude before licking from the bowl. Emma chuckled at Lola’s behavior before she got out some frozen fruit and blended together a pineapple kiwi smoothie for herself. 

The blonde sat down and drank her breakfast while scrolling through her instagram, deep in thought. She already had planned out the food she was going to make for Regina. She had gone grocery shopping the day previous to make sure she had everything she needed and there wouldn’t be an ‘oh shit’ moment minutes before she had to leave. 

By eight, Belle had left for her class and Emma had begun cleaning and prepping the kitchen to start making lunch. With Lola by her side, music playing loudly, hips shaking, the food was prepared. She first created a pasta salad with some vegetables such as dried tomatoes and green peppers as well as a light vinaigrette. Next, she baked some chocolate chip cookies. They didn’t turn out perfect, and to be honest, Emma should have taste tested them first before putting them in the little blue container, but she didn’t so she moved onto the next ‘element’ in her dish (okay, she watched too much top chef the last couple days), a fruit salad. A container mixed with sliced strawberries, blueberries, kiwi’s, grapes, pineapple, and she squeezed the juice of half a lime into a little condiment container to pour over the fruit when it is about to be eaten. Emma admits, she loved cooking. Baking isn’t her strong suit, as Eegina will soon learn, but she thoroughly enjoys cooking as it was a relaxing agent to her. 

Emma finished the cooking and baking within two hours, so she set the fruit salad in the fridge and the pasta in the stove on low so it keeps warm. The blonde decided to take Lola on another walk to waste some time before she had to get dressed and leave, so she hooked her furry brown friend up to her leash and left the building. 

While on their walk, Emma played around with the pup. Lately she was quite busy with work she didn’t have much time to play with Lola as much as she used to, but that was going to change. Lola was super energetic and require a lot of exercise, she was only two years old so it made sense. Emma couldn’t wait for their mini launch date. She was super excited. 

What was Regina going to be wearing? How will her hair be styled? Will she look much different than the night at the party? I bet she will look beautiful either way. Yeah, definitely, Emma agreed with herself. 

  
  


Soon enough, it was eleven and it was time for Emma to leave her apartment. She said a quick goodbye to Lola before she grabbed the cute retro minnie mouse picnic basket she found at bed bath and beyond the year previous that was never used (but Emma just HAD to have it to fulfill her disney obsession) and that was filled with the food the blonde had prepared just a few hours before and headed out the door. 

Emma climbed into her bug after placing the picnic basket safely in the passenger seat and started up the engine. She quickly drove out of the apartment parking lot and followed the directions on her phone that led to Mills and Co, where the beautiful brunette was waiting. Emma seriously could not wait. She had been anxious all day to see Regina. She hadn’t been in a serious relationship since her ex, Lily, who messed her up pretty badly. It was a long story, but the short version was: Emma gave Lily her heart, Lily took it and climbed into bed with four other chicks. So Emma was pretty much ready to give up on her dating life when her best friends dragged her to the party, and there entered Regina. 

Regina was super sweet and kind from the moment the two met. She was generally interested in what Emma was saying at the party, and she clearly wasn’t using her just for sex, considering Regina didn’t make a physical move. Emma was so thankful to her friends for dragging her to the party. Of course, Emma would never admit that to Ruby, not in this lifetime, but she was pretty thankful. She didn’t want to jinx her (hopefully) bluming relationship with Regina but she thought that this first date, no matter how short, was going to be amazing. 

Not long after Emma climbed into her bug and left she arrived at the very tall building with blue light up lettering on one side of the building, spelling out ‘Mills & Co’. The blonde let out a sigh, she didn’t know she had been holding in as she stepped out of the yellow bug. She walked over to the passenger side and pulled out the red and black picnic basket. After locking the car, she checked her messages from Regina. 8th floor, 6th office down the first hallway to the right when you get off the elevator. She walked into the building and got into the closest elevator and clicked ‘8’ and waited. The doors closed after a red head quickly ducked in, after calling out ‘hold the door!’. When Emma asked what floor she was going to, the woman replied eight so Emma responded that she was going to the same floor. 

The ride was quick and short with no stops in between the ground floor and the eighth floor, when they both got off the redhead seemed to know where she was going, Emma looked down to her phone once more and followed Regina’s directions, going down the first hallway and to the 6th office. The redhead had gone in the very same door and Emma got confused. Who else was visiting Regina? She checked the little plaque beside the sixth door, which said “Regina Mills” so yes, she got the room right. Emma waited for a minute and knocked on the door. A moment later there was a strict but light ‘come in’ from inside the room. 

Emma carefully and silently opened the door and gave a small smile.

“Hey,” she waved slightly with her free hand as soon as she saw Regina. Regina quickly stood up, revealing that she was wearing a black pencil skirt and a white blouse tucked in. 

“Emma,” was said in a soft tone as Regina returned her smile. The brunette turned to the redhead and a slightly more firm tone was used. 

“Zel, I assume you know your way out by now. Please use the door instead of the window this time?” Regina asked in a tone that was slightly suggestive and her eyebrow was raised. The red head, Emma now knew was Zelena, chuckled and leaned over the desk, and wrapped her arms around the brunette. Regina placed a quick kiss on her cheek and returned the hug before pulling away. 

“Text me,’ Zelena told Regina before passing Emma on the way out. Zelena closed the door behind herself, which left Emma and Regina alone in the office. 

“Emma,” Regina repeated in the soft tone before she walked around the desk and wrapped her arms around the blonde woman, pulling her into a hug. Emma chuckled quietly and mimicked the action, wrapping her arms around the petite brunette quick before the two pulled away.

“It’s so good to see you again! I know this situation isn’t ideal for lunch, but it’s alright.”

“No, no, it’s alright. Don’t worry about it, Regina,” Emma reassured her as she sat down on a comfy chair opposite to Regina’s side of the desk. She set the picnic basket onto the desk and smiled as Regina sat down on the other side. 

“So.. first I have a fruit salad and some lime juice,” she told the brunette, pulling out the glass container as well as the little container containing the lime juice. 

“And then.. A pasta salad with feta cheese and vegetables with a sun dried tomato vinaigrette, and some cookies.” Emma told Regina, pulling out each container before setting the picnic basket onto the floor. 

Regina smiled widely at the girl across from her. “Wow! This all looks so good, Emma. I love pasta, this is actually perfect. So.. I assume fruit first, yes?”

Regina’s suspicion was confirmed with a nod from Emma, before she was handed a fork and spoon. “I’m not sure which you prefer, so,” Emma chuckled softly and a small blush formed across her cheeks. 

Regina set down the fork and opened up the container of fruit. “Thank you, for the consideration, Emma, I prefer spoons,” she told the slightly older woman before dipping into the fruit salad (after pouring the lime juice across the container) and pulling her spoon back with a piece of strawberry, a piece of a kiwi and half of a grape. She slipped it into her mouth and pulled the spoon back with a small moan. 

Emma gulped and waited to see what her dates reaction would be to the fruit salad. Regina chewed and swallowed before looking to Emma, a soft blush formed across her cheeks as she realized that Emma had been watching her eat. 

“Sorry, this is just really good! I’ve never thought of putting lime juice onto fruit salad, it gives it a subtle but nice difference,” Regina explained, super embarrassed that she just moaned in front of her friend. 

“It’s okay, I’m glad you like it,” Emma smiled back, before picking up a piece of strawberry with her fork. 

The two girls sat in a peaceful conversation as they nibbled on the fruit salad and moved onto the main course, the pasta, and talked about what had happened the past week. Emma told Regina about the company she was designing a website for. It was started a couple years ago by two twelve year old girls who are young entrepreneurs, making a healthy but still good tasting lollipop. 

Regina had mostly been going through one of her mother’s contracts between ex-husband and ex-wife. One of the ‘rules’, as regina put it, was that they had split custody over their dog, Russo, who was an adorable 2 year old beagle they adopted together. 

Not long later, the girls had moved onto the chocolate chip cookies emma had made. Regina took the first bite, and spit it out into her napkin quickly, and immediately started coughing into her inner elbow. 

“W-what’s wrong?” Emma stuttered, standing up abruptly as Regina took a gulp from her glass. 

After a moment, and nearly half of Regina’s drink later, the brunette muttered out the words “way.. too much.. Salt’’

Emma’s eyes bulged out of her head as she sniffed the unbitten cookie in her own hand. “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! I.. I must have used salt instead of flour!”

Regina looked at the blonde with a serious expression for nearly a minute before she burst out laughing. “You.. you used  _ salt _ instead.. Instead of flour!” the brunette let out between laughter, letting out the most beautiful sound Emma’s sure she’s ever heard before.

“I-I guess I did..”, Emma let out a small laugh and scratched the back of his neck- a nervous habit of hers- as she looked to the beautiful woman standing in front of her, laughing carefree. 

Needless to say, the rest of their date went pretty well. Forty minutes into their date, about ten minutes after the too-much-salt-cookie-incident, Regina got a call from an organizer, reminding her that there was a meeting in ten minutes that she needed to attend. Regina thanked Hope, the organizer, before Emma and Regina decided to end their date there. 

After Emma carefully put her containers back into her cute picnic basket, Regina wrapped her arms around Emma’s waist and pulled the blonde in for a hug. “Thank you for being flexible around my strict schedule and bringing me lunch. I’ve had a great time,” Regina told her as she pulled away from the- _ returned- _ hug. Regina leaned up onto her tippy toes and pressed a soft kiss to the blonde’s cheek. 

Emma smiled down to the brunette and gave a slight nod. “Of course, anything for you. Text me soon?”

“Always. Have a great night, Emma,” Regina said and pressed one more kiss to her friend’s cheek. Emma nodded and chuckled softly before picking up the picnic basket and heading out Regina’s office door. 

  



	3. part three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait.. I'm going to try and update about every Sunday as much as I can! see you next week-hopefully?!

July 9th 2019

“Zel, I’m telling you, she’s the sweetest thing, next to this little monster” Regina told her very pregnant sister, gesturing down, as they walked to the elevator in the mall. Regina was holding Mia’s hand tightly, not wanting to lose the small little four year old, who had gorgeous curls. The two women let the young girl press the button, making mia giggle softly as it lit up. Regina bent down to Mia’s level and tickled her tummy softly with a wide smile and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead before standing up. 

Zelena, watching the encounter, groaned and rolled her eyes. “Man, I wish I could bend down like that,” she teased, with one hand on her bulging stomach.  
Regina rolled her eyes at her sister and stepped off the elevator after the doors split open with the small girl beside her, still holding onto Regina’s hand tightly. Zelena followed the out before a new group of people flooded the elevator. The three made their way to their favourite nail salon, M.P. Nails. 

Mia stayed with Zelena as Regina checked in, telling the woman they have arrived for their appointment. Immediately, the Mills girls were led to their spots, two ‘grown up’ pedicure seats with a miniature purple butterfly pedicure seat in the middle. Mia immediately hopped up onto the purple seat and took off her sandals. Regina and Zelena both chuckled at the girls habits but nonetheless did the same. “So, tell me more about this Emma..”

“She’s super sweet, she brought me the lunch at work last week, we have been talking since the day after the party..literally every morning she says-” Regina is cut off by Mia squealing as her feet are put in the water.  
Regina smiled and waved her hand in front of Mia’s face, making her look at her before Regina signed: “are you okay?”, wiggling her fingers a bit as she signed, and received a quick nod from the young girl with a wide smile on her face. 

“Where was I? Oh right. So every morning she texts me good morning and wishes me a good day at work and then always says goodnight, it’s so cute! And we text as much throughout the day as we can, she asks little questions and is actually interested in hearing the answer.” Regina explained to her sister, a huge grin spread across her face. 

Zelena chuckled and shook her head. “She’s really into you, Genie, you need to go after that before she is snatched up by someone else! People like that don’t stay single for that long. Especially when they’re that attractive!” Zelena bent over the side of the chair and covered Mia’s ears for a moment before continuing talking. “These pregnancy hormones are so crazy, despite me being straight as a broomstick I kinda wanted to jump her bones just seeing her that day in your office!” 

Regina's eyes widened and she swatted her sisters arms away from Mia’s head. “She can’t hear you regardless, dumb-butt. Plus, thats not appropriate to say in front of my daughter either way!” Regina scolded her sister, rolling her eyes, the ‘signature Mills look’ before turning to her daughter, and raising her fingers. 

“What colour would you like on your toes?” Regina asked the little girl, and she received a ‘thinking look’ in return for a moment before the little hand wiggled, the sign ‘’yellow’’, which looked like the shaka sign. Regina agreed and then told the nice woman, Jia, who then got started on painting Mia’s toes. 

Mia turned to Regina once again and signed with her little fingers, ‘phone?’ which kind of looked like she was putting a fake phone up to her ear. Regina quickly signed ‘yes’ before she pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it and handed it to the four year old. Mia brought her hand down from her chin, signing ‘thanks’ before carefully taking the phone from her mother. Mia was distracted from a quiet video on the phone and giggled every couple of minutes when Jia did something that made her feet tickle, so both Regina and Zelena leaned back and closed their eyes, enjoying the peaceful quietness and relaxation of their feet being massaged, and their toes being painted. 

An hour and a half went by and all three girls had manicures and pedicures, and decided to head out to the park and go play for the next hour before going out for dinner at the local diner. Mia decided she needed to be carried to the park, and with Zelena’s bulging stomach, Regina was left with the task of carrying the four year old down to the park. 

Twenty minutes, and two asleep arms later, the three Mills had found their way to the park which had a playground and a dog park. This was one of Regina’s favourite spots to take Mia because of the safe rubber mulch under the child friendly playground, and Mia loved watching dogs run and catch frisbees. 

Regina let Mia down carefully and let her run over to the park after telling her to stay in sight. Regina sat down next to Zelena on the park bench and watched her little girl climb up the mini rock climbing wall that was only about five feet tall. 

Regina and Zelena made small talk as they kept an eye on Mia, about the baby kicking, baby clothes, pregnancy advice and more. A couple minutes went by and Mia jumped off of the rock climbing structure and ran around a little bit, before a dog jumped over the fence from the sectioned off dog park and ran towards Mia, chasing her. 

Regina immediately jumped up and ran over to Mia, scooped her up into her arms as the little girl giggled. The brunette held her daughter tight to her body making sure the dog hadn’t bitten her or anything. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blonde jogging up to them. 

“I-I am so sorry, usually her behaviour is way better,” the blonde let out in a shaky-out-of-breath tone after grabbing the dogs collar. Regina rolled her eyes at the lame excuse of an apology. 

“Well maybe you should keep a leash on your do-” Regina whipped around to the blonde, mid sentence, before realizing who was speaking to her.  
“Emma..!” Regina exclaimed, shocked as hell. “T-that’s your dog?” 

“I.. yeah. This is Lola, um, once again I’m really sorry about her behaviour, she isn’t normally like this.. running off and all. She is just very energetic. Is the little one okay?”

Regina was confused for a split second, still getting over the shock of seeing Emma before she turned to her daughter and tapped her shoulder to get her attention and asked her in sign language with one hand if she was okay. The small auburn haired girl nodded before raising her little hands and signed ‘’I play with dog?” 

Regina smiled and nodded before signing “I ask.”. When Regina turned back to face Emma, the blonde stood still with wide eyes. When Regina raised an eyebrow at her Emma shook her head and spoke up, realizing she looked like an idiot. 

“She is deaf?” was the first thing that came out of her mouth and Emma silently cursed herself. 

Regina chuckled, nodded, and set mia down on the ground carefully and bent down to her level. While signing, Regina spoke: “yes, this is M I A, she is deaf. Mia, this is E M M A, and Mia is wondering if she can play with your doggie.’

Mia watched her mother's hands as she spoke, and when she finished signing she looked up to who she now knew was Emma and waited for her response. Emma bent down to Mia’s level as well before holding up her hand in a fist and ‘nodding’ her fist up and down a couple times. Both Mia’s and Regina’s eyes widened at Emma. Mia was the first to react. 

“You sign??” Mia immediately signed in shock to meet another person who signed. Emma nodded and raised her hands “I know a little bit,” Emma looked at the little girl for a moment before seeing that her toes were painted yellow. “Do you like yellow?” 

Mia nodded quickly with a wide smile. Emma smiled softly and signed “me too! I love yellow! This is L O L A, she loves to play! Do you want to play with her?”

Mia once again nodded before she ran around the park and Lola followed. Emma and Regina stood back up as Mia ran off with Lola and Emma turned to the brunette, “So.. is Mia a niece or a cousin or something?” The curious blonde asked, obviously intrigued to know the answer. 

“She’s mine,” Regina quickly said before adding another couple words. “Mia is my daughter. I-I understand if you don’t want to talk to me anymore or-” Regina was cut off by the blonde pulling her in by the waist for a hug. 

“Don’t worry about it, you aren’t losing me this quickly,” Emma chuckled softly and Regina melted into the hug, briefly letting her worries sink away. Emma still wanted to be her friend. That was a good thing, right? Yeah. Definitely, right? Maybe not, Regina definitely wanted to be MORE than friends, but she didn’t want to ruin this good thing. Someone supporting her despite having a child. Yeah, she probably shouldn’t-

Regina was pulled away from her thoughts when Emma pulled away from the hug. “So.. the father? Is he.. in the picture?”

Regina took a deep breath and shook her head no. “Daniel, uh, my childhood best friend, I have known him- or I guess I knew him since we were five.. We went to school and always did everything together, when we graduated highschool.. We spent a drunken night together. It was a dumb, stupid disicion we made and we decided it didn’t mean anything. I didn’t have feelings for him, he didn’t have feelings for me. It didn’t change our friendship, until I found out I was pregnant. It didn’t.. It was such a shock, because when I was sixteen.. I was told I was unable to bare children.” Regina took a deep breath in and closed her eyes for a moment before continuing her explanation. 

“So, I figured it was a false positive, but my sister, Zelena, convinced me to go to the clinic. It turns out I was a couple weeks pregnant, and so I told Daniel. The doctors warned me about going through with the pregnancy. I had a hostile uterus. There was quite a few large chances that I could miscarry, the baby could have medical problems, the list goes on and on. But, she was a blessing. This was the only way I’d ever be able to have a biological child. I had given up on that thought, I knew I wanted children, so I told myself I could always adopt, or get a surrogate. There were other ways to have children, but then I was blessed with Mia. I knew I couldn’t, you know, I wanted my baby. And so that is what I told Daniel. He didn’t need to be in the picture. I could do it on my own, I wasn’t going to tie him down to myself, a woman he didn’t love. But Daniel was happy.. He wanted her.. So so badly. He came to every single appointment, he got me whatever I was craving, there was rarely a day where he wasn’t by my side. And then he had to go to college. He wanted to quit and stay home, with us. I told him he had to go and get his degree in psychology, he wanted to be a therapist.. So he left. By that time I was already nearing six months, my mom wouldn’t let me move away and go to college, I stayed home. He called, every day. Multiple times a day sometimes. And then, in November, I went into labour. Two months early.. I knew it was a possibility, of course. She was born a premie. So I called Daniel on my way to the Hospital, and told him what was going on. He immediately left and was on his way to meet his son or daughter..” 

Regina took another deep breath and made sure the tears building up in her eyes didn’t spill. “He was a good man. He always did what he thought was best.. He was in an accident that day, on his way to come meet her. He passed an hour and forty two minutes after she was born. His mother.. She told me that that was what Daniel was going to be called if he was a girl. Amelia. It was her middle name. His parents.. They met her once she was a couple months old and out of the hospital but.. It was too much of a reminder I guess. They always send a christmas card and Mia a birthday present every year but..” 

Emma pulled Regina in for another hug and Regina sunk her face into Emma’s neck, silent tears rolling down her face. “It’s alright.. I’ve got you. It’s okay,” Emma gently rubbed her back as she whispered soothing little messages into her ear. After a couple more moments Regina reached up and wiped her tears away and placed a soft kill to Emma’s jaw before pulling away. 

“Thank you.. For that. It’s been quite a while since I’ve told anyone about Daniel, and you don’t seem like you’re about to run away or block my number,” Regina chuckled 

“You having a kid doesn’t change things for me, Regina. She’s pretty smart and cool, just like her mom. I’d love to see the little one more too, I understand that you’re a package deal. And I would love to be friends with the little squirt too.” Emma laughed, making Regina smile. “So.. is Mia fully deaf?” when Emma received a raised brow, Emma got defensive. “Well if I’m gonna be friends with her, I gotta know some of this stuff!” 

“Yes, Mia is fully deaf. She is alright at reading lips, she’s not the best but she is only four, She signs very well and can be vocal at times, typically around people she’s comfortable with. Everyone in her life signs so she isn’t used to needing her voice. My mom and sister sign, she goes to an all deaf preschool, so typically when she meets someone not from school or family, which isn’t very often, they don’t sign. So she was quite shocked when you signed as many hearing people do not,” Regina explained to Emma as they walked around the play structure and towards Mia slowly. 

“Ah, I understand. I learned asl when I was about 12? One of the younger girls in the group home was deaf, I think she was about four or five at the time. I didn’t learn very much because she was adopted within a few weeks, but when MM adopted me at 16 I asked about it and they hired someone to teach me. It’s been quite a while since I’ve spoken fluently and I’m quite rusty but I think somehow I’ll manage.”

The women finally made their way to Mia and Lola, who were both laying down in the grass looking up at the sky and Mia had one arm reached over scratching Lola’s tummy. When Mia realized that they were there, she shot up, making Lola startle and jump up, Mia squealed and hugged Emma’s legs. Emma chuckled and messed with her hair a little bit as Regina and Lola got accuantained. Lola bowed her head softly before sticking her paw out for Regina. The human brunette shook it carefully before realising it and Lola immediately licked her cheek, leaving it all slobbery and sticky. 

Mia turned to the dog and signed ‘sit’, and Lola sat down in front of her. “Look mama!” she signed to her mother, who’s eyes widened at the sight. Emma chuckled and scratched her neck nervously. Emma handed Mia a dog treat from her pocket, and Lola gently pried it from hands belonging to a giggling girl. Yeah, Regina could see herself doing this in the future.


	4. part four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, I have gone in and added dates to all the chapters to make it easier for me to remember and write! hope you enjoy <3

September 16th, 2019  
Emma+ Belles loft 

Around 9 am, Emma found herself crawling out of bed and to her bathroom with a large headache. No, she wasn’t hungover, she just spent hours talking to Regina the night previous. And by hours, I mean texting all throughout the day while both women were working, constant texting from 5pm-8pm while Emma made and ate dinner and Regina did the same and watched a movie with Mia, and then were on call from 8pm-3am after Regina put her daughter to sleep and the two girls got ready for bed. 

The only reason why they stopped talking around 3 am was because Regina fell asleep against the phone.

*flash back to last night, somewhere around 3 am*  
“Hey Regina,” Emma spoke in a soft tone, “did you know koalas sleep up to 22 hours a day because when they eat eucalyptus leaves they need a lot of energy to digest the leaves?” 

The only sound Emma got in response was a soft snore coming from the other side of the call, and Emma was sure her heart melted just then. With a wide grin, Emma whispered, “goodnight, Regina.” and blew a soft kiss into the phone before she hung up. At that point, the call was at 7 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds long. Emma quickly took a screenshot to remember the time before she opened up her iMessages, and clicked on the first contact, ‘Regina ❤️’ and typed a quick message. 

‘Sorry for keeping you up for so long. Thank you for keeping me company tonight. I look forward to seeing you soon, have a great morning, Regina. Ps, your snoring is super cute ❤️’  
Satisfied with her text, Emma pressed send and watched as the text went from sending to delivered. 

Emma set her alarm for 9:30 am before she set her phone on her charger on her bed side table. She rolled over and pulled the covers up closer to her chest before drifting away to the land of much needed sleep.

*flash back over*

She finished her business and washed her hands before she rubbed her bare face with her cold hands as a refresher. Emma released a sigh, she didn’t know she had been holding in. After drying off her fresh face, she left the bathroom and made her way to the kitchen, where she found Belle sipping on a cup of coffee while reading a book. Emma poured herself a cup and sat across from her. 

“Sleep good?” Belle asked Emma, as she bookmarked her page and set the book down to give her full attention to what Emma was saying.

Emma nodded and took a sip of her coffee before responding, “yes.. I guess it could have been longer but it was nice, and you? I hope I wasn’t too loud last night..” the blonde blushed slightly.

Belle chuckled and shook her head, “not at all. You’re in love, you have a right to talk to your girlfriend. Young love and all that,” Belle wiggled her eyebrows. 

“Hey! I’m older than you!” Emma protested “and I don’t know..I love talking to her and spending time with her.. I mean we were on the phone for over seven hours. But.. it’s been a couple months and the most we have ever done is a kiss on the cheek. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, Belle. I’ve met her kid but we haven’t actually kissed yet.”

“Okay.. I know just the solution. We will call Red over and have a girls day. We can watch movies and order chinese and eat junk all day, alright?”

“No no, I couldn’t ask you guys to do that.. plus don’t you two have a class with Belfrey soon?” Emma asked confused, before looking over her shoulder to the time on the microwave. “Like.. pretty much now?”

“Nope. got an email at 6 saying shes stuck at the hospital with her niece or something like that.. So I’m free all day and Red will always cancel plans for me sooo..” Belle giggled “I’ll call her night now, and then ill place a chinese delivery to arrive at noon. And then we can pop in your favourite movie, Dirty dancing, and wait for Rubes to get here, okay?”

Emma smiled appreciatively to her best friend and nodded. “Thank you, Belle. I’m so grateful for you two, I don't know what I would do without yous.”

“Well.. you would have an incredibly boring roommate, a lame ass best friend and on top of that, you would have never met Regina. I’d say you're better off knowing me, sweetie” Belle smirked and hopped off the stool and kissed Emma’s forehead before heading off to her room to call Ruby, leaving Emma laughing in the kitchen. 

~~

Ten minutes later, Belle came out of her bedroom explaining that Ruby was on her way, (but probably wouldn’t be there for about half an hour because Belle most likely had woken her up with the call,) and that the chinese food was going to arrive in a couple hours. Emma thanked her profusely and set her now empty coffee mug in the dishwasher before heading to her room to put on some light makeup, and of course check her phone for messages from Regina.

Emma honestly didn’t like alot of makeup- her typical routine consisted of: light mascara, lip balm- maybe lip gloss, brushing out her brows slightly and a little bit of under eye concealer. Once she was finished putting on her ‘face’, she picked up her phone and found three messages from ‘Regina❤️’ Emma immediately used her thumbprint to unlock her phone and went straight to answering the messages. 

7:23am- “I do NOT snore!!! You were probably hearing your stomach, Emma Swan!”

Emma let out a small chuckle at that one, Regina’s snoring was precious.

7:25am- “Good morning, Dear. Don’t worry about keeping me up, I like talking to you, Emma.”  
7:32am- “Would you like to join me grab a coffee and a bite to eat for lunch today? I have a tad bit more time than usual today for a lunch break.”

Emma got excited for a quick second as she read the last message sent by Regina, asking permission to get lunch together, but then the blonde remembered the girls day today. Emma typed out her response in one text with a small frown. 

9:56am- “I’ve just finished breakfast now, sorry about the delayed response. Unfortunately I cannot do lunch today, I’ve promised the girls a girls day only. Not that you aren’t a girl, because clearly you are a girl, but you get what I’m saying, right? Anyways, I can’t do lunch because I have plans with Belle and Ruby today.. Is there anyway you could do dinner? You could bring over the little one and we can attempt to make our own pizza, and if all else fails, order pizza?”  
It took a couple of minutes for the busy woman to respond, but when her phone dinged with Regina’s response, Emma immediately opened it. 

10:03am- “I’m sorry, I promised Mia we would have dinner at her grandmothers today :( ‘’

Emma sighed softly and struggled to come up with a response. Was it really this hard to see her girlfriend? She was too caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t even make a mental comment about the fact that Regina had used an emoticon. 

10:07am- “Don’t worry about it. I hope Mia has fun with her grandmother, I’ll message you later, okay? I think Ruby is here. Have a good day.”

She quickly typed out and looked over the text twice before she clicked the little blue ‘send’ button. Emma groaned and tossed her phone down onto her bed and took a deep breath. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled slightly before leaving her room to join her two best friends to watch Dirty Dancing and have a little girl time, relationship problems aside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading. keep in mind that this is an AU fic, and the characters are not quite the same as they are usually portrayed! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Regina have their first sleepover!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sunday! I hope you enjoy this chapter. You may notice there is a date at the beginning. This is just a helper for me and doesn't really effect the story but it does give a timeline. I will be going to the previous chapters and adding dates to them, as well.

September 28th 2019- Saturday, Emma’s apartment 

The past couple weeks Emma and Regina had seen each other a couple times, whether is was for a quick coffee on Regina’s breaks, or on the weekend at the park (Mia wanted a playdate with her two new friends- Emma and ‘Looolo’. Mia had been super gentle and sweet with each other, the playdate ended with Mia using Lola as a pillow as they laid in the grass and watched clouds. 

The week before, Regina told Emma that Mia was having a sleepover at her aunt’s for the weekend, so she was free to do something. Emma immediately asked Regina if she would like to come over for dinner and stay the night- since Belle was staying at Ruby’s more recently. Regina had ‘checked her schedule’ to make sure she didn’t have any cases she had to work on that weekend, which she didn’t so she accepted Emma’s proposal. 

Emma had been counting down the days until their first sleepover, she was super excited. She hadn’t expected anything explicit, especially considering they still haven't kissed properly, but she didn’t want to pressure Regina. Emma was willing to wait for Regina, no matter how long it took. She knew this was her first relationship since her friend/lover/father -of -her -child had passed, as well as her first relationship with another female. 

Now, it was meer hours until Regina would be here, and Emma grew nervous. Emma was double checking everything. Lasagna finished prepping? Check. Oven preheating? Check. Snacks? Check. Movies? Check. Drinks? Emma ran to the fridge and swung open the fridge and- check. Emma seemed to have everything in place, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong or missing. Emma worked it up to nerves, and told herself she was only feeling this way because this would be the most time they’ve spent together in person so far and she was simply nervous.

Emma put the lasagna into the oven and set her phone timer for fifty five minutes and waited. Emma eventually sat down in the living room and scrolled through her social media accounts until Regina knocked on her door approximately half an hour later. Emma quickly stood up and made her way to the door, stopping briefly at the mirror in the hall to make sure her makeup and hair looked good, before she opened up the door to reveal a beautiful smiling brunette with a small clutch and a smaller gym bag type duffle bag, which Emma assumed consumed her pyjamas. 

“Hi! Come in!” Emma said enthusiastically after she realized she had been smiling like an obsessed person. Regina thanked her and stepped into the apartment, and closed the door behind herself. 

Regina set her bags down beside the door and wrapped her arms around Emma’s neck and pulled the blonde into a tight hug. Regina chuckled softly as Emma responded by wrapping her arms around her waist and lifting the smaller woman up a little. 

Regina kissed her cheek softly as Emma set her back on the floor and Emma giggled, “dinner should be done in about.. ten minutes.” Emma told Regina as Belle came out of her room with a small suitcase. 

“Jeez. Let me know if I need to find a new roommate soon,” Emma teased, motioning to the suitcase. 

“I'm going for two days. Chillax, Em! It’s not like I’m going all lesbian- u-hall on Ruby’s ass. She couldn’t handle me. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to find someone better than me.” Belle shot back at Emma, before kissing her cheek quickly. 

“Have fun! Hi, Regina. Have a great night, you two!” Belle winked and kissed Regina’s cheek before the australian grabbed her suitcase handle and went out the door, slightly slamming it behind her. 

“Well.. I guess that just leaves us,” Emma told Regina, just as the timer on her phone went off. “I am going to take the lasagne out of the oven, you can set your bag inside my bedroom. It’s the door on the right down the hallway.”

Regina nodded and followed the instructions, she placed her bag onto Emma’s bed and looked around the plain and simple room. The walls were painted a very light grey, there were a couple pictures around the room. Somewhere pictures of her, Belle, and who Regina assumed was Ruby, there were others of Emma and a shorter woman with a pixie cut. Regina was pretty sure it was her mother. 

Other than the couple pictures, Emma’s room was pretty boring and, well, grey. It wasn’t super colourful or exciting. There was a large bed against one wall with a side table beside one side. A dresser and a mirror on the other side of the room, and a little door on one side of the room which Regina assumed was Emma’s closet. After snooping for another moment or two, Regina exited the room and rejoined Emma in the kitchen as emma was slicing up the lasagne. 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” 

Emma turned around to see Regina leaning up against the kitchen door frame with a smile spread across her face. Emma nodded and pointed to the stack of two plates sitting on the counter with the cutlery. “Would you mind setting the table? And what would you like to drink? We’ve got, um, watermelon juice, orange juice, tomato juice..” Emma turned up her nose at that but went on regardless, “white and chocolate milk, pinot grigio, and bottled water.”

Regina took the small pile of dishes and started setting the table, “maybe a small glass of pinot to start? And then work our way into watermelon juice, how about that?” she suggested

Emma laughed and rolled her eyes playfully, “pinot grigio it is,” she moved away from the lasagna on the oven and walked over to the cupboards, and pulled two wine glasses out, next heading for the fridge to pull out the bottle of pinot. 

Emma brought the bottle and glasses over to the table and then went back for the lasagne. Emma then set the lasagne on the table and moved around to pull Regina’s chair out for her. Regina chuckled and kissed Emma’s cheek with a soft ‘thank you’ and sat down in the other seat. 

Regina served up the two plates with lasagna and garlic bread while Emma poured them both a smaller glass of Pinot Grigio. They toasted to a night off and enjoyed their meal. 

The two finished up around half an hour later before they retired to the couch and popped in a movie. Regina chose to watch ‘A Star Is Born’, and then admitted that when she was younger she was completely ‘in love’ with Lady Gaga. The two women started off sitting next to each other, enough room for a smaller person to sit in between them. As the movie went on, Regina slowly inched closer and closer to Emma until their thighs were touching and Regina’s head was resting on Emma’s shoulder, Emma’s arm ended up draped around Regina’s upper body, hand resting lightly just above the curvier woman’s hips. 

Emma was internally screaming and squealing like a 16 year old who had just been asked to the prom by their crush. Regina had definitely opened up more of herself in an intimate but also at the same time not overly intimate way, cuddling with Emma. 

By the end of the movie, both girls had passed out on the couch, limbs tangled together, including one of Regina’s hands in the blonde’s mane. 

A couple hours later, Emma was woken by Regina shifting in her arms and ‘punching’ Emma’s abdomen softly, but hard enough to wake her up. Emma’s mouth opened in slight pain, but the second she opened her eyes to Regina cuddling- and softly snoring- against her chest, her heart melted. Emma shifted slightly and slipped out from underneath Regina. The blonde grabbed her phone and headed into her room, and changed into a pair of flannel pajamas bottoms, and a white sports bra. She then went into the bathroom and wiped off her makeup with a remover wipe quickly before she brushed her teeth, using a manual toothbrush instead of her electric toothbrush because she didn’t want to make too much noise and wake Regina. 

Emma made her way back to the living room and gushed silently over how cute her girlfriend was before she bent down and slipped one arm under her knees and one arm under Regina’s arms and carefully lifted her up bridal style. Emma walked carefully and brought the sleeping brunette into her room, and set her on one side of the bed. After making sure she was okay she took Regina’s duffle bag and set it on the ground. Next, Emma went into her room and got a couple cotton pads and a bottle of miceller water and kneeled down beside the bed, put some of the liquid onto one of the pads and carefully started wiping off Regina’s makeup as gentle as she could. 

Regina giggled in her sleep, “tickles,” she murmured, and Emma paused for a moment before she continued. It took her a couple minutes but she had successfully removed Regina’s makeup, so Emma smiled to herself and tossed out the used pads and put the miceller water away. Emma carefully took the covers out from under Regina and placed them on top of her, before Emma went around the bed and crawled in on the other side. 

Regina’s body automatically responded to the dip in the bed by shifting and cuddling up to Emma’s chest once again. Emma smiled widely and kissed the top of the brunettes head and wrapped her arms around her before drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next up, a bit of distance and a surprise?


	6. chapter six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! I know it's been a couple weeks, I'm so sorry about that. with school and exams I've been super busy, but i'm hoping to go back to posting weekly. I hope you guys like this chapter, it's been pieced together bits and pieces over the last couple weeks and I finally had some time this weekend to merge it all together into an actual chapter. let me know what you guys think! :)

October 14th 2019

Weeks went by since their first successful sleepover, and Emma couldn’t wait to see Regina again, but she was swamped. Emma had seven commissions placed within two days and had to fulfil all of them by herself within the promised three weeks. It took days to finish one, but seven? ‘No wonder I have no social life’, she thought. 

She worked on the commissions day, and most of the night. The night before, she had slept for less than four hours, haven been woken up with a new idea for her commision she had been working on recently and she couldn’t get back to sleep before she finished putting her ideas into an actual thing on paper. 

Around midday, Emma received a response to her good morning text she had sent to Regina.   
‘Hey, good morning.. Afternoon? It’s been quite a rough 24 hours, Mia has been a little sick recently.. Neither of us got much sleep last night and I slept most of the morning. I hope you’re having a great day at work, Em!’

Emma, knowing the certain ringtone, immediately picked up her phone to respond to her girlfriend. The blonde smiled sadly at the message and ran a hand through her long blonde locks before typing out her response. 

‘Good afternoon! I’m sorry Mia isn’t feeling too well :( I hope the poor girl gets better soon. Work is doing alright.. I’m about halfway through these commissions, thank god, but I need the money, y'know?’ the blonde sent to Regina before placing her phone down on her desk and went back to typing on her wireless keyboard. Her computer had been a pretty big (and pricey) investment she made a couple years back. She had made the money back within two or three commissions. It was getting hard to keep up with the commissions with just her laptop and a plug in mouse.   
Hours later with only a couple messages exchanged between the two, Emma had been on her way with Lola to Regina’s with a semi-big container of her mom’s famous chicken noodle soup (that she spent an hour begging her mom for the recipe earlier on in the day) for both Mia and Regina. As Emma drove, Lola sat beside her in the passenger seat with her head out the window, tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. Emma thought Lola might raise Mia’s spirits and give her a cuddle buddy. Twenty minutes past five, Emma pulled up into Regina’s driveway. She got out after turning off the car and grabbed the container of soup, went around the side of the car and let the dog out before heading up to the door. Emma reached forward and knocked three times on the door and waited with the pup by her side. 

Approximately thirty seconds later, a tired, makeup free Regina dressed in sweats opened the door, shocked to see Emma standing there on the other side. “Emma..” she gasped, a small smile forming across her lips. 

“Hi! I brought chicken noodle soup, and Lola. I figured Mia might need a little pick-me-up, and you could probably need a break. So, I’ve cleared my night and I am here for whatever you two need,” Emma explained, and Regina simply opened up the door wider to let Emma and Lola in. Emma stepped into the house, giving Regina a quick peck to her cheek as she walked by, and Lola followed obediently. Regina lead the way to the kitchen and transferred the soup from the container into a pot on the stove to heat up. 

By the time Emma made her way to greet Mia, Lola had already found and cuddled up with the sleeping girl on the couch. Emma smiled contently and pressed a small kiss to the girls warm forehead and stroked the top of Lola’s head once before joining Regina in the kitchen. Regina had been serving up the soup Emma had brought over into three bowls. 

“Would you like some?” Regina had asked, unsure if Emma had eaten before she came over. 

“Yes, please,” Emma had responded before telling Regina that she hadn’t taken a break to eat lunch because she was working on the commission, so she was quite famished. Regina, of course, scolded her for that before handing over one out of three bowls of soup along with a spoon. The two women dug into the soup, quietly slurping up spoonfuls of the liquid over small talk. 

Regina had explained to Emma that the poor little girl had a spiking fever within the last 24 hours, as well as a sore throat. Regina figured it was strep, and if it continued she would be taking Mia to the hospital the next morning, or before if her fever had gotten too high, which luckily, it hadn’t. Emma learned that a fever wasn’t totally uncommon with the young girl, she typically had a slightly higher temperature than your standard ‘normal’, but it wasn’t something Regina worried about. 

When the two women were nearly done their bowls of soup (Emma nearly done her second, Regina was still sipping on her first,), Mia had come walking into the kitchen, blanket in one hand trailing on the floor, her other rubbing her tired eyes with Lola following behind like the obedient girl she was. 

Regina gave Emma an apologetic smile as Mia immediately went over and tugged on Emma’s jeans, but Emma quickly brushed it off and hopped off the stool she had been sitting on and picked up the four year old, who instantly cuddled into her and mumbled the cutest thing Emma has ever heard in a raspy, tired voice; “hi Enna”  
Emma smiled widely and rubbed her back as a silent greeting, knowing Mia couldn’t hear her respond verbally. After a moment, Emma sat back down with Mia on her lap, The young girl turned to Regina and signed, “is that soup?”, to which Regina nodded with a smile at the three girls, including Lola. Mia then asked for some, and in no time, Regina placed a smaller bowl in front of her with a toddler silicone spoon. Mia proceeded to sip of the soup broth slightly, still cuddling into Emma. 

Not even twenty minutes later, Mia had fallen asleep against Emma’s chest. With room directions from Regina, Emma carefully stood up and walked upstairs to Mia’s room, Lola following suite, and placed her under the purple butterfly covers. Lola then, with Emma’s approval, jumped up onto the bed and cuddled into Mia’s side. Emma pressed a soft kiss to Mia’s forehead once more, cooler than the first time, before quietly walking out of the room and leaving the door ajar. 

Emma then joined Regina back downstairs in the living room, only to find Regina passed out on the sofa. Emma smiled to herself and placed the throw blanket over her body. She picked up a pen and notepad from the table that had been there from Regina and Mia’s tic tac toe game earlier, and wrote Regina a note. She tore out the page and placed it on top of the notebook before grabbing her bag and letting herself out of the house. 

Approximately two hours later, Regina awoke from her cat nap and found Emma’s note. 

Dear Regina,   
First of all, do not beat yourself up for falling asleep. It’s obvious you haven’t slept in a while and you need it. Mia is tucked in bed with Lola, I figure Mia could use a snuggle body to help her feel well? (if not, let me know and I'll be right over to pick her up, I hope I’m not overstepping here) if it’s alright, she has already been fed dinner so you don't need to worry about that. Feel free to message me when you guys wake up in the morning so I can pick her up? When I put Mia to bed her temp was just under 100, yay! I hope a good night's sleep will do the trick and she shakes the sickness. In the meantime, don’t worry too much about Mia. She is a strong girl and will be back to normal soon enough, so don’t you dare make coffee in order to stay awake all night. If anything happens, Lola is right there and will know what to do ;) so you need a good night's sleep too.   
Have a great night's sleep, Emma. 

Regina found herself grinning ear to ear as she finished reading the note. She immediately picked up her phone and sent off a quick message to no other than the blonde woman who had stolen her heart repeatedly. 

“Thank you, for everything. You’re the sweetest. Mia and I appreciate everything you’ve done for us today. Of course it’s okay that Lola stays for the night, I’m sure Mia will be thrilled in the morning. I’ll message you when Mia is up, Goodnight, Emma ❤️”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you guys think about it, it gives me motivation to write the next chapter faster! ;)


	7. 7.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are two parts to this chapter. 7.1 and 7.2. I'm working on the second part at the moment, but for now I hope you enjoy this!

OCTOBER 25th 2019  
“I need to get her something nice, but also meaningful, Ze. I want her to.. remember this birthday. We are going up to Maine to visit the small town her parents are from, so it’s pretty special. I want her mom and dad to like me, is that weird?” Regina rambled on, as her and her sister walked through their local mall. Emma had invited her to come with her to visit and meet her parents in Maine, and Regina was nervous, to say the least. 

Eventually, Zelena had to cut her sister off, “Regi! You two aren’t even dating, yet anyways.. Just chill. I’m sure you could get her a two dollar ring lollipop and she would be happy, knowing it came from you. From what you’ve told me, she doesn’t seem like a jewelry type girl. I think she would enjoy something more deep, or personal than a ring or a necklace..”

Regina sighed and nodded. Emma definitely wasn’t the jewelry type. The only piece of jewelry Regina had ever seen the blonde wear was a ring on a simple chain around her neck. Regina never asked, but she could tell it meant something to her as she never once saw the blonde without it. 

“So.. lunch?” Regina offered, unable to think about gift ideas any longer. 

Zelena chuckled and nodded, “That new burger place by the water?”

SQ SQ SQ SQ SQ SQ SQ SQ

“So…you packing anything sexy for the trip with your girlfriend?” Ruby teased, sat on Emma’s bed as the said blonde was collecting the clothes to bring on her trip. 

Emma scoffed audibly, rolled her eyes and looked at her friend. “No, I am not. Geez, Rubes, I’m taking Regina to meet my parents, not on a romantic getaway to… the Bahamas. There will be no sexy.”

Ruby rolled her eyes at that, and flopped down backwards against the lined up pillows, “But whyyy? You could totally get away with hot foreplay. Having sex with Belle, thinking we’re about to get caught is the best, and quickest way to get her wet. I bet Regina is the same.. there's totally something dirty about her.”

“Ew! Ruby! Gross!” Emma threw the closest thing she had available at her best friend, causing a pair of jeans to hit Ruby straight in the face. “Don’t talk about Regina like that.. She deserves to be respected, not talked about like some object,” Emma grumbled as she continued to pack articles of clothing into her oversized suitcase. 

As she pushed down the top and used the zipper to close the suitcase, Emma looked up at her friend and sighed. “I’m sorry, I just really like her. I know she isn’t ready for stuff like that and I don’t want to get any thoughts too soon.”

Ruby’s face gushed, a soft pout spread across her lips as she looked up at her blonde friend, “Awh, you’re in love!”

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Emma drove up to Regina’s home, at 2:30 am. Their flight was at 5, and it would take about twenty to thirty minutes to drive to the airport. Emma had been up for hours, antsy waiting for the time she could leave to pick up Regina. Emma quickly shot off a text to Regina, telling her that she had arrived. Emma got out of her car and opened the back seat door, getting out a small duffle bag containing dog food, treats, and a couple of Lola’s favourite toys. Lola climbed out of the back seat excitedly, knowing where she was. Lola immediately ran to the door, which was then opened by Regina bending down to Lola’s level.

After Regina had made her greetings with Lola, she stood up and greeted the blonde owner with a quick ‘hi’ and a hug. Regina silently led Lola to her daughters room, to which Lola was quite content with and immediately hopped up onto the bed and curled up with the little girl the pup had grown fond of. Regina smiled widely and pressed a short but sweet goodbye kiss to Mia’s forehead before stepping away and leaving her daughter’s bedroom, Lola guarding the young girl well. 

Regina then went back outside to find Emma placing her suitcase into the car. Regina smiled and walked over, helping Emma before they were in the car and off to the airport. 

After going through security, while waiting for their plane, Emma had gotten the two of them incredibly overpriced starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwiches since she was ‘starving’. Not too soon after Emma had begun to eat her sandwich, their flight was being called to board. 

“Damnit!”

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“Thank god we only brought carry on luggage, “I can’t all of that luggage was sent to England!” Emma exclaimed, as the two walked hand in hand to the entrance/exit of the airport, luggage rolling behind them in their other hands. 

Regina let out a short laugh and shook her head, “I don’t believe we need that much clothing for three days, dear. I’m sure if you spill something all over your beater like the child you are, your mother wouldn’t mind letting you use her washing machine. You are quite a messy eater.”

“I spilt ketchup that one time! You don’t have to continue to bring it up,” Emma groaned in fake annoyance as they got outside. Emma immediately recognized her best friend from her teen years, standing against her baby blue jeep. 

“Elsie??” Emma called, and the second the platinum blonde’s head shot up, the two blondes ran towards each other, pulled each other in a hug and did the over dramatic groans and rocking. 

Regina grabbed ahold of Emma’s abandoned luggage in her now freehand and slowly walked over to the reuniting blondes, feeling a small tingle of jealousy. When the blondes broke apart, Emma quickly introduced the two strangers before the luggage was put in the car, and they were off to Emma’s parents.

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“So, this is your childhood bedroom? I was thinking there would be more rainbows.. or unicorns,” Regina snorted, as she looked around Emma’s bedroom, full of posters of people, such as Sara Ramirez, Leisha Hailey, Heather Matarazoo, Colbie Smuthers, and other brunettes. 

“Uh.. you realize I was adopted when I was sixteen, not six, right?” 

Regina threw her head back and let out a raspy chuckle, fingers brushed against the surprisingly not dusty dresser surface, neatly covered in little figurines and fresh white flowers. “Well, from what you’ve told me about your mother I wouldn't be surprised.. And why are there flowers everywhere?”

“Mom is a very,” Emma paused for a moment, thinking of the right words to say, “positive attitude person. She sees the best in people, believes everyone can change. The colours, and flowers represent that, I guess,” Emma shrugged and flopped down on the freshly made, full sized bed. 

Regina nodded in understanding, sitting down beside Emma on the small bed, looking around the room once again before meeting Emma’s eyes with her own. “So.. what do you want to do until your parents get home?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo.. all of the exams and school stuff is done for the first semester, I don't exactly have an excuse, right? right. I'm so sorry for making you guys wait for these chapters lately, however we are coming close to the end of the book. I should have the second part finished and posted by my normal posting schedule day on Sunday, by the latest Wednesday. anyways, what are your thoughts of this chapter? was it good? was it bad? what can I improve on?


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